Latest revision as of 16:39, 7 July 2015

Introduction

The Knights Templar is a clandestine Christian order militant, empowered by the Pope himself. They look for the supernatural and make sure it does not become common knowledge that it exists. If one day people had proof that Devils, Demons and all manner of supernatural creatures existed, there would be no need for Faith, as it would be a fact. Without Faith, the last real choice for Humanity, there can be no Heaven, as you would not need to believe to follow the tenets of faith, you would follow the rules BECAUSE it was a fact.

The Knights Templar are recruited from people who have had a traumatic experience (getting born with the sight is quite traumatic too, and this happens often), causing them to be sensitive to the "real world", called The Sight. This causes them to see through the disguises many creatures of the night wear around us in open society. Many of those creatures are Benevolentia. An agreement between God and Satan, allowing them the chance to keep an eye on the others actions and influence events covertly, neither of them wants people to see the truth, for the aforementioned reasons. As long as the Benevolentia don't work overtly (no direct killing, showing of supernatural gifts, etc,...), they are allowed to exist and cannot be attacked or harassed by the Templars. There are many who skirt the rules and quite a few who prefer to go after their own agenda, not to mention many people that use supernatural means to further their own goals, and those are fair game for the Knight Templars.

Then there are Magic users that influence the world around them overtly, their mere existence a ticking time-bomb, because such power usually begets abuse... As soon as they cross the line: Witches that take control of or harm a human, Wizards merely by using magic (the danger of Procursus), Diabolists are harder to find, but just having a Demon is usually reason enough to be tried and executed... Sometimes they get a second chance, especially these days, as finding people with the skills and abilities to go up against the Supernatural and Unholy is rare enough. But summary execution, if they are a danger to the team or the populace, is a sword that's ever above them. This is why every team has at least one person of the Cloth with them (Nuns, Priests, Monks, ...), usually because they themselves have sinned, or somehow become Excommunicatis. Strangely enough they all have the Sight when they come to be Knights Templar, a secret none are willing to share.

History

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of Solomons Temple (French: Ordre du Temple or Templiers) or simply as Templars, were among the most wealthy and powerful of the Western Christian military orders and were among the most prominent actors of the Christian finance. The organisation existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages.

Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church around 1129, the Order became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades.[5] Non-combatant members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.

The Templars' existence was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the situation. In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the "Templar" name alive into the modern day. -- [1]

Of course this is not how it ended, having his hands full with the excesses of the Inquisition, Pope Clement V took drastic measures when Philip IV seemed about to take matters into his own hands. Jaques de Molay took it upon himself to by martyred for the cause. As many know, the amount of assets and personnel seized were hardly a tenth of their total wealth, a large part went to other orders, but the best and brightest got a new goal. After the Papal Bull of March 22, 1312, the order officially ceased to exist. At the same time a clandestine order was set up to combat the rising threat of unholy and unnatural creatures that were threatening the people of Europe. Up to that point the Inquisition had been officially tasked with that, but they were found abusing and misusing their power more often than not, and actually creating more fear.

They were issued to only deal with heresy, the Church would officially take care of the other problems as it had before, while unofficially the Knights Templar would have a very successful and fruitful campaign stretching until June 7th 2005, their actions relegating unnatural and unholy creatures to the realms of fantasy, with hardly any need for suppressing or letting scientific materials disappear.

When Benedict XVI was made aware of the order, he was the first Pope to entirely disbelieve the need for Knight Templars, and set in motion the firing and dispersal of all personnel. The Inquisition quietly took over, but their rashness created a scandal and massacre of a small Swiss town due to a Ghoul infestation, 13 februari 2013. Suppressed to the media it still caused Benedict XVI to reverse his decision and reinstate the order. Not long after he resigned. Sadly the institutionalising of many ex-members and rabid purging of Templar documents, made it very difficult to reinstate the already thinned numbers of Knights Templar.

Even though the period in which the Knights Templar were non-operational was relatively short, an enormous resurgence of supernatural cases has made the need for a period of accelerated enrolment and training a necessity. The relative inexperience of the new recruits, coupled with very limited information on the supernatural left useable after the purge, is causing huge problems, not many teams survive their first encounters, and success-rates are low.

New, good operational experience and information and new research is an urgent necessity! We need Heroes, that will do God's work!

The Knights Templar

Each Knight Templar has undergone extensive weapons training, as well as studied the procedures and the secrets required to fulfil their duties. This includes the secret Vatican code, Latin and Church Latin (a way to encode concepts using scripture, whereby you can pass information without a third party picking up on it).

A team of Templars is led by someone of the cloth, without exception. Very rarely these have Shepherd abilities. The Armoury supplies them with weapons and equipment, though the Templars themselves are expected to requisition any other necessities themselves through the Armoury.

If a scene is found to be contaminated with the supernatural, a clean-up request is made to Section 19, a secret part of the Vatican's Swiss Guard, specialised in cleaning up any traces of supernatural crime-scenes. When a team of Templars leaves on a Mission they are required to update their location. A detail of Section 19 is always on their heels, to clean up any scene once the team makes the call. They are intricately entwined with the Templars, without them the Templars mission would be much harder.

Goal

The goal of the Knight Templars is simple:

• No innocent shall be enlightened through actions of a Templar.
• Protect the innocents from the Creatures of the Night and the Occult
• Enforcing the Benevolentia, making sure they hold to the rules, as well as helping them if things beyond their control could endanger others.
• Protect the sanctity and secrecy of the Order of the Knight Templars.